LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX: IndyCar driver Conway making the most of his one shot

LONG BEACH - There was nothing surprising about Ryan Hunter-Reay coming through with the top time Friday in the second of two IndyCar practice sessions at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Hunter-Reay won here in 2010, and he is the defending series champion.

Hunter-Reay's top lap was 1:09.4224.

It was not all that astonishing that Mike Conway had the second-fastest lap of 1:09.4603, as he won here in 2011. The intrigue is that, at this time, Conway is signed with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to do just this one race.

Conway was involved in a scary crash in the 2010 Indianapolis 500 while racing for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing on the famed oval track. He suffered a broken leg and fractured vertebrae and was out for the rest of the season.

In 2011 Conway signed with Andretti Autosport and in his third race of the season, he won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Much was made of his comeback after being in the type of crash that often results in tragedy. But Conway did not finish higher than sixth the rest of the season.

Conway then signed with A.J. Foyt Enterprises, amid rumors he was skittish about ovals, for 2012. He had one podium, and actually pulled out of the season finale at the oval in Fontana after a practice run.

Conway, of England, talked candidly about his concern over ovals.

"At the end of last year, I kind of got to a point where I just wasn't enjoying them anymore," he said. "When you're not enjoying something, you're not going to give it your 100 percent effort, and you need to be when you're racing at those speeds."

Conway talked about pulling out of the race at Fontana.

"It just came to a point in Fontana, just went out and did a practice session and said, 'No, this is it. I've had enough of this now, I just want to call it a day,'" he said.

Conway admitted there is a fear factor.

"Yeah, a little bit, I think, for sure," he said. "I just didn't feel comfortable in the car at those particular tracks. So, yeah, I don't regret it at all. It was the best decision I made because I can sleep at night and get up in the morning and look forward to the race ahead because with the ovals, I wasn't waking up and looking forward to it.

"I just wanted to get it out of the way and get on to the next road and street course. That is not a way you can approach racing."

Long Beach is a street course, where speeds typically don't surpass 175 miles per hour. On the ovals, speeds reach 225 mph or more.

Conway is racing full time in WEC (World Endurance Championship). He said he is hopeful of picking up more road or street course races for Rahal Letterman Lanigan.

"When you get good results, you tend to like a place," he said, smiling. "I don't know. I think it's the whole event, really, not just the track.

"There is such a buzz with the crowds around here."

Unfortunately, the second practice session of the day - the afternoon one where the times are typically better than the morning practice - had four red flags that greatly cut down on laps completed. One was caused when Justin Wilson went into the tires on Turn 8. Moments later, Simona de Silvestro smacked the rear of his car.

"It was a weird day," said Hunter-Reay, of Andretti Autosport. "Just never really got a rhythm with the stoppages. We had a couple of incidents out there.

"I really didn't get to see who was involved or what happened, but it took a little bit of time from what we were trying to accomplish with the car."

Will Power had the third-best practice time of 1:09.5166.

"We still have some work to do on the Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, but P3 isn't a bad place to start," Power said.

Rounding out the top 10 were Tristan Vautier (1:09.5657), Helio Castroneves (1:09.6608), James Jakes (1:09.7664), Alex Tagliani (1:09.7829), Dario Franchitti (1:09.7891), James Hinchcliffe (1:09.8157) and Takuma Sato (1:09.9197). All but Hinchchliffe had his best time in the afternoon session.

Franchitti was bummed out about the lack of laps in the second session.

"It was a difficult afternoon because nobody got more than one or two laps in," he said. "I think we made some good progress in the Target car, but I guess we won't really know because of the lack of laps. We'll find out more tomorrow."